Knights look to stay hot against Rouyn-Noranda
It’ll be no easy task, but the QMJHL champion Rouyn-Noranda Huskies have their chance to stop the country’s hottest team tonight in Red Deer as the OHL champion London Knights enter action on a 15-game winning streak.
The Huskies have played to a 1-1 mark with a win over Brandon before falling to Red Deer on Sunday. They’ll need a rebound effort and a fast start if they hope to make things interesting against the high-powered Knights.
“We need to put more effort into what we’re doing right now,” said Huskies captain Francis Perron. “Last game we weren’t there mentally, didn’t work as hard as we used to, so I think we just need to focus on us, have a good start and stay out of the box because they have a good power play.”
London’s man advantage has operated at a 6-for-13 (46.2%) clip in victories over Red Deer and Brandon. Rouyn-Noranda’s penalty kill was the second ranked unit in the QMJHL this season, shutting down the opposition 83.6% of the time.
“The main thing for us right now is the work ethic,” Perron added. “Last game and even the first game we weren’t really sharp, winning our battles, paying the price on the PK for blocked shots. Those kind of things are going to hurt us in the long run. We need to make sure that we come out tonight, work hard, and pay the price to win.”
With London having asserted their dominance over Red Deer and Brandon, the QMJHL champion Huskies are next on their hit list, but the Knights are taking the lead-up to tonight’s game all in stride.
“They’re a very good team with a lot of speed and a lot of skill,” said Knights head coach Dale Hunter. “They play good defence, so it should be an interesting game. We have to go out, play hard and stick to what we’ve been doing.”
London’s big line of Mitch Marner alongside Christian Dvorak and Matthew Tkachuk has produced 10 points in each of the last two games while the second unit of Cliff Pu centering Max Jones and Aaron Berisha strung together seven points in London’s 9-1 win over Brandon on Monday.
“Our line’s fast, so if we’re moving our feet and moving the puck at the same time I don’t think many teams can stop us,” Jones said of his unit. “It adds another element to our team when we can be productive out there.”
London has had big first periods in both of their games thus far, climbing ahead 3-0 on Red Deer Friday night before charging out of the gate to a 4-0 lead against Brandon on Monday.
A win tonight will push the Knights directly into Sunday’s championship final. London will have last change as the home team.
The Knights and Huskies will have a later start tonight, dropping the puck on Game 5 of the 2016 MasterCard Memorial Cup at 8:00pm MT/10:00pm ET on Sportsnet, TVA Sports 2 and NHL Network.